Frame numbers in numerical figures and binary bar codes are optically recorded at the sides of each picture frame of a photographic disk film available in the market. In a disk film printing system, a binary code is read with an optical sensor and decoded into a frame number which is thereafter printed on the reverse of a developed photographic paper. If extra prints are requested, the frame number is inputted to the system by means of a keyboard so that the corresponding binary bar code is read with an optical sensor to then automatically set the identified picture frame at the printing position or station and perform exposures as many times as was instructed through the keyboard.
Since the recording positions of respective frames of a photographic disk film are specifically fixed, the picture frames and their numbers completely coincide with each other. However, a photographic roll film, e.g., a negative film of 135 size, is loaded in a camera in various manners as users change, and may be fed by various amounts for each picture frame. Thus, the recording positions on the negative film film may change so that the numerical figure frame numbers printed while manufacturing the film, at the sides of respective frames, are not in a one-to-one correspondence with the actually photographed frame number sequence, resulting in many inconveniences. For instance, if extra prints are requested, a printed photograph made during the first printing is visually compared with the negative film to distinguish the picture from other pictures and identify its frame number.
A known apparatus for facilitating such distinction records frame numbers on printed photographs at the time of first printing. For example, according to the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 56-128933, a mark is recorded on the center line of a start frame of a negative film and, thereafter, the frame number of a picture frame at the printing station is determined based on the transportation or movement quantity of the film after detection of the mark. The determined frame number is then printed at the peripheral blank portion of that frame or recorded on the reverse side of that print by using a character. Also, an apparatus has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 52-111718 in which if extra prints are requested, a numerical figure frame number is read with an optical character reader to identify the requested frame, and the frame is set at the film framing mask to print as many numbers as requested.
Problems associated with the above methods include a need for recording a start mark, and a complicated optical character reader. Such problems can be solved through introduction of a bar code representative of the frame number which is printed beforehand while manufacturing a film, at the side of a photographic film in a manner similar to that of a photographic disk film. Thus, the bar code can be read with an optical sensor disposed on the passage of the negative film to discriminate a frame number of a frame positioned at the negative framing mask.
In discriminating a picture frame number by reading the bar code, if an error read by the optical sensor occurs, there arises a new problem of the inability of discriminating a frame number of the picture frame positioned at the film framing mask. In the case where a plurality of frame numbers, e.g., "12" and "12A" are present within a single picture frame, it is generally desirable to select a frame number which is nearer to the center of the film framing mask. However, a conventional apparatus has no such selecting function.